January, 2012 - A Beginning

Vegetable gardening is not what you immediately think of when you think of January in Minnesota - but here we are, January 11th, and gardening is on the mind.  The goal of this blog is to track our successes (and failures) in 2012...

The garden in question is located in Eagan, Minnesota.  A nice little zone 4 location with all of the little hassles found in every suburban backyard:  weeds, rabbits, lack of space and weather that doesn't cooperate!

Our 2012 garden will be expanded a bit from the below, adding about 5'x15', and giving us a 15'x36' space to work with.  Our biggest issue seems to be the furry critters running around, nibbling on things.  We've tried different scent deterants, but since my lettuces, carrots, beats, asparagus, and bell and hot peppers ALL got eaten to the ground last year - this year we are trying a fence!

Vegetable Garden - July, 2011

Yesterday, we posted our seed order online from Johnny's Seeds.  The order has shipped!  Here is what will hopefully be going in the ground next year - all of which are new to us.  We'll do reviews of the seeds at each step of the process - including photos!

• Pole Beans:  Fortex
• Peas:  Sugar Snap
• I've only tried Beans & Peas once before without much success.  We'll try again and try out some 4-pole teepee trellises.
• Beats:  Red Ace
• Carrots:  Mokum
• Kohlrabi:  Korridor (white)
• Scallions:  Nebechan
• Radishes:  D'Avignon (french long)
• Summer Squash:
• Spineless Perfection (green)
• Slick Pick (yellow)
• Cucumbers:  H-19 Little Leaf (pickling)
• Lettuces:
• Arugala:  organic (note - bunnies don't seem to like arugala)
• Kale:  Toscana
• Green Leaf Lettuce:  Tropicana
• Red Leaf Lettuce:  Red Sails
• Green Romaine Lettuce:  Ridgeline
• Red Romaine Lettuce:  Red Cash (Pelleted)
• Green Butterhead:  Sylvesta
• Spinach:  Corvair (smooth leaf)
• Tomatoes:
• Grape:  Red Grape
• Sauce:  Debarao
• Heirloom:  Brandywine
• Heirloom:  Moskvich
• My mother will be starting the tomatoes from seeds this spring!
• Herbs:
• Basil:  Genovese (Pesto)
• Cilantro:  Calypso
• Dill:  Superdukat
• Oregano:  Greek Oregano
• Thyme:  German Winter Thyme

Others:

• Sage - supposedly a perrenial in zone 4, so we'll see if it comes back this spring
• Peppers - notoriously hard to grow from seed, so we'll be purchasing sweet bell and hot peppers locally
• Potatoes - will be a first try for me.  Will buy locally.
• Onions - from sets.  Will buy locally.  Tried last year and they were delicious, but they didn't grow very large.
• Scallions - from sets.  Will buy locally.  Also new for us this year.
• Sweet Corn!  Will be grown off-site on the family farm :-)

I can taste the sweet, crunchy, freshness already!  Maybe spring will come early this year?